Tons of waste plastic and paper was engulfed in flames at Junction Eco-Park and firefighters faced molten plastic running towards warehouses. Investigations are ongoing to establish if it was started deliberately.

The plant is run by the Roydon Group and the fire was believed to have started in a storage area away from the site’s main building.

In March last year fire crews worked for three weeks at the scene of a blaze at another recycling depot in Salford.

The incident at Duncan Street, Ordsall, saw several roads closed.

As a result of the fire the Recovered Fuels Shipping Limited was banned from running the plant in July.

The firm was a subsidiary of the Stockport-based Asset and Land Group, which owned Junction 25 a recycling plant at Bredbury which went up in flames in August 2013.

That fire smouldered for a week at the site in Stockport Road West. It was the fourth fire in just under two years at the centre.